Poker with friends; Dealer misdeals (burns extra card). What to do?

Question

So here's the situation. It's heads up between my two friends in Holdem because I folded. Bob has pocket K/7 and Billy has K/8. Bob burned one and flopped: K/8/7. Bob pre-burns, because he has a nasty habit of doing it for some reason when it's his turn to deal. Billy goes all in, and Bob calls. They show. Bob burns and the turn is irrelevent. Bob burns again and the river is a 7. Bob "wins".

After the river, Bob jumps up in joy and the cards/chips get knocked all around in the pot etc. However, I suddenly remember that Bob burned twice before the turn because of the pre-burn, and Billy concurs. There is a big dispute because Bob claims he didn't, who should win, should they split, blah blah.

The question is, what should be done? In my opinion, the dealer who misdealed should take full responsibility, and thus Billy should win the pot. What do you guys think? It's basically up to me to sort this out tommorow when we meet again. Is there an official ruling on this anywhere?

Answer 1

in misdeal situations such as this, the turn and river cards should both have been taken off the board, and the deck reshuffled, with a new turn and river being put up(no need to burn before the turn card)

as for fixing the situation, i'm sure all of you will come up with a reasonable and fair solution

Answer 2

I'm a poker dealer at a casino. My opinion is that the hand should stand as is. The reason the dealer burns a card is to make it more difficult to cheat. In this case, no one was trying to cheat, so the hand should play. It doesn't really matter from a mathematical standpoint which card out of the deck gets flipped up. There is the same probability that it could be a 7 no matter how many cards are burned.

I will say, however that had that happened at the casino where I deal, the floor supervisor would have most likely decided to split up the pot 50/50 between participating players. I have seen that happen. The most recent incident I can recal was AA vs KJ where Kxx flopped, the dealer burned an extra card before the turn, and a J turned, and then the dealer burned normal and rivered an A.

Under both circumstances, the player with AA would have won that pot, but the floor supervisor elected to split the pot 50/50 regardless.

In this case, however, I would say the hand plays as is because there was no possibility of cheating.

Answer 3

In a real casino the floor should of been called over if you burn and turn to Early or if you burn 2 cards. What usually happens is that the turn would be re-shuffled and a new turn would be put out. But the fact that it happened after the river makes it a bad situation. There is no way to back up the cards because you have had action after the turn. I would say that the hand would stand because you have no way to give back the chips to the other players and no way to reconstitute the pot before the river. If you catch the problem before the next card is dealt then you can re-shuffle the turn, and re-deal it, but the fact that you have no way to reset the hand on the flop, and the fact that there was action after the turn means the hand will stand.

Answer 4

I believe that the official rules are otherwise, but in a friendly game with friends we let a mistake like this stand.

I know people go nuts when they lose on something like this, especially if they discover that the "real" sequence of cards would have given them the win. However, in reality, they were just as likely to be helped by the different cards than hurt.

Say someone goes all in on the turn and gets called. Of the remaining cards, 75% will give Player A the win, and 25% of the remaining cards will give Player B the win. Whether one or two cards are burned before the river, there is still that 75%/25% breakdown on whatever card is shown. You could burn 15 cards and it is still a 75%/25% breakdown.

I know it sucks to see that you "would have won," but from a probability standpoint it really is irrelevant. Thus, we just play on.

However, I would set up rules for things like this beforehand.

Answer 5

I was asked by friends to set up a home game for them,
since they are total(ish) beginners.

This i agreed to do under one condition,
the 5 mins before the game begain, ALL quietly
listened to set rules of conduct / play.

Which included NO deal until blinds in etc etc, verbal calls etc. This also included stopping deals until blinds were put in.

For the first few hands of the game, i also VERBALLY called out situations for them. To which i said needed to be done until all got a 'idea' of what was going on, when to act etc etc.

Admitidly some catch on quicker than others, but ALL were glad id took this route because the enevetable misdeal happened and all had to agree to the laws stated at the beginning, which were AGREED by all.

All are still friends and now we have a regular, good game.
With no arguments, Except the usuall "How the hell could you call with that rubbish!" on a bad beat lol!

So, i would say, Home games set the 'House Rules' and agree before the first card is delt.

In your instance, i would Call Miss deal, SPLIT-POT between 2 left in it.

all the best, stay lucky!

Answer 6

Truth is you had folded, that puts you out of the game completely and leaves the duration of the game between the players. Technically even though you saw the mistake you should not have mentioned it.
There is no official ruling that I know of. You are all three friends and I am sure you guys will work out a solution between you.

Answer 7

after the players have already acted, play out until conclusion of hand. here is a link to the rules, scroll down to the "misdeal" section.http://www.pokercoach.us/RobsPkrRules4.htm

Answer 8

need to decide that before the game starts. Match the pot, reshuffle or....